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CLAS 690 – Chapter 1 Attitudes to the Gracchi in our sources for the late 2nd and early 1st centuries B.C. A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Classics in the University of Canterbury by Tony John Dijkstra University of Canterbury 2010 2 Introduction The aim of this thesis will be to discover as much as possible about the sources for the period in question which discuss the best known holders of the Tribunate of the Plebs – the Gracchi, active between 133 and 122 B.C. The aim here will be to answer the questions – Who are our surviving sources? What do they tell us about the Gracchi? What attitudes to the Gracchi do they display in their accounts? The hope is that an extensive look at these sources and their attitudes can then be used in subsequent chapters to consider just who their own sources may have been, especially where some of the authors who are still attested may have used common sources for their works. Furthermore, by contrasting the sections of our extant sources which display inconsistencies in their attitudes we can begin to group their own ultimate sources according to the attitudes they each display to the Gracchi. The first two chapters will focus on the fully attested narrative sources we have for the lives and the tribunates of Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus and will use these sources along with various partially attested works to develop an overall picture of the two Tribunes. The two texts we have which provide a full account of the Gracchi are Plutarch‟s Lives of the brothers and Appian‟s Bellum Civile I.1.7 – I.3.261. These authors provide the only complete extant versions of the Tribunes‟ lives while shorter summaries of the events in question can be found in the Livian tradition 1 One advantage of Plutarch‟s Lives is the fact that, unsurprisingly, they provide more personal and biographical information on the Gracchi (especially at Tiberius Gracchus, I-III) which can be usefully compared to other sources. Appian‟s account meanwhile focuses on their actions as Tribunes. Again this should come as no surprise with the civil wars as his subject matter and Tiberius Gracchus as “…the first to fall victim to internal commotion…” (Bellum Civile, I.Intro.2). 2 3 (the Periocha, Florus and Orosius)2 as well as in Diodorus and Velleius Paterculus. Finally various anecdotes and fragments relating to the Gracchi can be found in a number of other authors, particularly in Valerius Maximus‟ Memorable Doings and Sayings and throughout Cicero‟s works.3 The plan here is to consider the most important events from the lives of the Gracchi – and by most important I mean those most often retold by our sources. The scenes which have come down to us via the greatest number of authors are those that these authors considered the most important to their work on the Gracchi, be it a history, a biography or a moral treatise. One thing that should become clear is that the stories of the Tribunes‟ lives can be divided up in this manner4, so well in fact that some scholars have posited an actual drama – written shortly after the death of Gaius Gracchus – as a source for some of the above authors.5 By comparing the various accounts of each of these scenes side by side it can be noted just where the facts for a particular event are not in dispute, where a number of sources agree on certain details regardless of the inevitable spin put on events and where our extant sources display similar attitudes on the Gracchi. Of course there will also be facts which are in dispute amongst our sources, and it is these that will often reveal differing attitudes throughout our sources – indeed by the end of the first two chapters it should be clear 2 While these three sources based on Livy‟s work comment a number of times on the Gracchi, one other such source, Eutropius, omits any mention of them, even at IV.18-21 where he discusses the period of 133-122 B.C. In the introduction to his translation of the Breviarium H.W. Bird suggests that this omission is deliberate on Eutropius‟ part owing to the „anti-Senatorial stance‟ of the Gracchi (pg. XXVII). 3 While Cicero‟s comments on the Gracchi are numerous the greater part of these take the form of brief comments or anecdotes. A survey of his more substantial comments can be found in Murray, R.J. “Cicero and the Gracchi,” TAPA, Vol. 97 (1966), pp. 291-298 and these will be discussed further on. 4 One excellent example of the way Plutarch‟s account in particular can be broken down into „scenes‟ can be found in Nagle, D.B. A Historiographic Study of Plutarch’s Tiberius Gracchus (PhD dissertation, University of Southern California, 1968), pp. 41-93. Furthermore, it is not at all uncommon for modern scholars to refer to the lives of the Gracchi in terms of particular „episodes‟. 5 Beness, J. and T.W. Hillard “The Theatricality of the Deaths of C. Gracchus and Friends,” The CQ, New Series, Vol. 51, No. 1 (2001), pp. 135-140 – state that the death of Gaius in Plutarch “suggests (literally) a theatrical scenario” (pg. 135) and that Diodorus XXXIV/XXXV.29.1 is also influenced by theatrical conventions (pg. 137, n. 13). See also Wiseman, T.P. “The Tragedy of Gaius Gracchus” in Roman Drama and Roman History (University of Exeter Press, 1998), pp. 52-59. 3 4 that our sources on the Gracchi can be divided into two broad groups, one which is generally favourable in attitude and one which is largely hostile to them. Furthermore, the third and final chapter will consider just where these attitudes may have originated, hopefully revealing two clear traditions on the Gracchi – one favourable and one hostile – probably dating back to near contemporary propaganda.6 6 As pointed out in Stockton, D.L. The Gracchi (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979), pp. 36-38 – the careers of Tiberius and Gaius were so often used in political debates over following generations that actual evidence regarding their aims and motives becomes very difficult to find. 4 5 Chapter 1 – The Life of Tiberius Gracchus The story of the Gracchi in our extant sources generally begins prior to the birth of the two Tribunes, starting instead with the marriage of their father, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, to Cornelia, daughter of Scipio Africanus. Here Plutarch, unsurprisingly, focuses on the virtue of Tiberius senior as the catalyst for the marriage – as prior to Scipio‟s death he and Gracchus had been bitter political rivals.7 All of the sources we have that discuss the parents of the Gracchi agree with Plutarch regarding their father‟s virtues and prestigious career,8 and both Valerius Maximus and Aulus Gellius go so far as to place the marriage prior to the death of Scipio, allowing for a miraculous reconciliation between Scipio and Gracchus.9 Quite aside from the accepted unreliability of these two sources, that they both place this anecdote in a section of their works titled respectively Qui ex inimicitiis iuncti sunt amicitia aut necessitudine10 and Reditiones in gratiam nobilium virorum memoratu dignae11 makes it clear just how it is tailored to suit their purposes.12 The only other detail which comes to us regarding the marriage of Tiberius senior and Cornelia is that of an omen involving two serpents, as Plutarch tells us that: 7 Plutarch, Tiberius Gracchus, I.2-3. See also I.1 – “They [the Gracchi] were sons of Tiberius Gracchus, who, although he had been censor at Rome, twice consul, and had celebrated two triumphs, derived his more illustrious dignity from his virtue.” For one example of this rivalry, see Livy, Periocha, XXXVIII – Tiberius was the Tribune of the Plebs whose veto prevented Scipio‟s return from exile in 187 B.C. 8 For example: Diodorus, XXXIV/XXXV.5.1. Although some others largely do so in order to contrast him with his sons – such as Cicero, de Officiis, II.12.43. 9 Valerius Maximus, IV.2.3; Aulus Gellius, XII.8.1-4. 10 Val. Max. IV.2. 11 Aul. Gell. XII.8. 12 Earl, D.C. Tiberius Gracchus, a study in politics (Bruxelles-Berchem: Latomus, 1963), pg. 51 stresses that the marriage occurred after Africanus‟ death, hence no dramatic reconciliation. As he notes (pg. 54, n. 1), Plutarch outright states this at Tiberius Gracchus, IV.3, citing Polybius (XXXII.13) in turn as his source. 5 6 “…he [Tiberius] once caught a pair of serpents on his bed, and that the soothsayers, after considering the prodigy, forbade him to kill both serpents or to let both go, but to decide the fate of one or the other of them, declaring also that the male serpent, if killed, would bring death to Tiberius, and the female, to Cornelia.”13 In response Tiberius had the male serpent killed, reasoning that his younger wife should be the one to live – as she was still able to bear children by Pliny‟s explanation14 - and he died shortly thereafter. In addition to Plutarch and Pliny, Valerius Maximus also repeats this tale (praising Tiberius‟ act of “conjugal love” without discussing any possible practical motives)15 and Cicero mentions it twice in his de Divinatione, on the second occasion querying why Gracchus did not just keep both snakes since the soothsayers had not said what this would result in. He also dismisses the accuracy of their prediction as coincidence.16 Following the death of Tiberius senior we get only a couple of fairly brief mentions of Cornelia‟s raising of her two sons.
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